Abstract

A new analysis is presented for the atmospheric transmission of the CO₂(P-20) line, which includes pressure shift, bleaching, and tuning off-line center. The results indicate that absorption is negligible above 25 km for an atmospheric CO₂ laser, even at line center, with the resulting transmission equal to 0.5 from sea level and 0.75 from 2.5 km altitude, midlatitude summer. Cavity tuning of about 0.1 cm⁻¹ produces a transmission of 0.97 from 2.5 km, with a corresponding large decrease in thermal blooming, but with little decrease of cavity efficiency for a well-saturated atmospheric pressure cavity, since the linewidth of the latter is considerably larger than that of the atmosphere.

© 1979 Optical Society of America

Transmission at λ = 10.6-μm wavelength through the upper atmosphere

D. H. Douglas-Hamilton
Appl. Opt. 17(15) 2316-2320 (1978)

Measured and predicted atmospheric transmission in the 4.0–5.3-μm region, and the contribution of continuum absorption by CO₂ and N₂

L. S. Bernstein, D. C. Robertson, J. A. Conant, and B. P. Sandford
Appl. Opt. 18(14) 2454-2461 (1979)

Pressure sensing of the atmosphere by solar occultation using broadband CO₂ absorption

Jae H. Park, James M. Russell, and S. Roland Drayson
Appl. Opt. 18(12) 1950-1954 (1979)

Atmospheric Absorption at the Line Center of P(20) CO₂ Laser Radiation

P. K. L. Yin and R. K. Long
Appl. Opt. 7(8) 1551-1553 (1968)

High power laser propagation

Frederick G. Gebhardt
Appl. Opt. 15(6) 1479-1493 (1976)